1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sanitary jacket, and more particularly to a sanitary jacket that fits around an edible ice cream cone and allows the user of the jacket to handle the cone without touching it and place the cone on a supporting surface without bringing it into contact with the surface.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Restaurant and ice cream shops serve ice cream, frozen yogurt and similar foods in various containers, including those that are edible. The edible containers usually have the shape of a flat bottom cup or a cone which is hollow to receive the ice cream and which has a size that allows the consumer to hold the cone and eat the ice cream. The person serving the ice cream fills the cone with ice cream from a container or a conventional electric ice cream dispensing apparatus. The server then hands the ice cream cone to the consumer.
The manufacturers of the edible cake type ice cream cones or cups do not ordinarily pre-jacket them; they supply them in large packages which contain a great number of cones. Consequently, the server must use a sanitary shield or barrier which allows him or her to handle a cone without touching it. One such shield is a napkin. The server wraps the napkin around the cone and keeps it in place by applying a clamping pressure to the napkin with his or her fingers. While maintaining the napkin around the cone, the server cannot easily move or shift his or her fingers, and thus, finds it difficult to handle the usually fragile cone and serve it to the consumer. In addition, the server cannot place the cone on a supporting surface without using a second napkin as a sanitary barrier between the surface and the cone.
Pre-jacketing of ice cream cones is also known, but has proven unsatisfactory. The jackets used in this process fit tightly around the cone, and an edible adhesive maintains them in place. The adhesive, however, prevents easy removal of the jacket, causing spills and stains to the consumer's clothing. Additionally, the best time to pre-jacket a cone is during the manufacture of the cone. However, the manufacturing processes used to make cake cones and the sizes and shapes of these cones do not allow easy application of a jacket at this time. Thus, the manufacturers pre-jacket sugar cones but not cake cones, the more commonly used type of cone. Finally, pre-jacketing the cones is costly.
The sanitary jacket of the present invention avoids the problems discussed above. The jacket is simple and inexpensive to manufacture. It allows the employees of a restaurant or ice cream shop to serve ice cream cones cleanly and easily; the server to handle and manipulate the ice cream cone without touching it; and the server and consumer to place the cone on a supporting surface without bringing the cone into contact with the surface. The jacket may also receive ice cream which spills from the cone to prevent spills and resulting stains on the server's or consumer's clothing.